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The Dumb Waiter

 
Richard Beck Review by Richard Beck 5 Published: 17 Dec 2025 Westcliff High School For Boys Show Dates: 10 Dec 2025-11 Dec 2025

It’s a 60-minute two-hander, but Harold Pinter's mingling of realism and absurdism, combined with his precise style of writing and the need to create two credible yet enigmatic characters, means The Dumb Waiter presents a challenge for even the greatest of talents. It is therefore all the more remarkable that two teenagers from Years 10 and 12 at Westcliff High School for Boys should pull off a triumph.

A breath-taking opportunity to see a first-class exposition of the great playwright's work at its best

Performed in a black box, created by curtaining off the bookshelves in the library and performed in the round, the space has precisely the required level of claustrophobia needed for the basement setting. Two canvas beds are the sum total of furnishings, but in the centre of the raised staging, connecting this level to the uncharted floor above, is what amounts to the third character: the dumb waiter, which seems to have a mind of its own and interjects by suddenly dropping down with notelets attached to a covered tray or abruptly ascending. But who is writing these food orders, and why can they not grasp that the kitchen no longer functions?

Playing faithfully to the script and its stage directions, Sam Skeels and Conor Lynch-Wyatt create the very different characters of Ben and Gus respectively, two hitmen awaiting details of their next assignment. It’s nothing they haven’t done before, but that doesn’t make the waiting any less tense nor allay Gus’s concern that their victim might be a woman. The specific actions that Pinter insists on are there from the outset. Gus struggles with properly tying his shoelaces, while Ben assumes the detached and disinterested manner of a man simply filling the time with reading and rereading his newspaper while making the occasional observation on a story.

This is where the chemistry between the two begins to emerge. Skeels embodies the contrasting elements of a passive, lethargic man of few words, who nevertheless exerts enormous control over his partner. His movements are purposeful, and his occasional criticisms of Gus and comments towards him indicate the underlying sinister and threatening manner of a man who will not tolerate criticism. In the societal view of the play, he represents the oppressive authority of those powers who are, nevertheless, controlled by someone higher up the ladder.

Lynch-Wyatt, in contrast, is a man who can't sit still, always burning energy in erratic pacings of the floor or expressing nervous tension. He behaves submissively in his role and is clearly dominated by Ben, perhaps because his intellectual powers are more limited. He is the other dumb waiter in the room, but it doesn't stop him trying to engage, although it rarely gets him anywhere.

Under the meticulous direction of Mr Ben Jeffreys, who runs the school’s drama club, the team has mastered the art of delivering an ellipsis, a pause, and silence; the three forms adopted by Pinter to break up his text in a way that directly reflects the characters’ mindset. They also have the effect of creating suspense, tension, and anticipation in those watching. These work most effectively when the text is delivered with pace. It is this art of timing that comes over so well in this production and which the duo have clearly mastered.

Of course, the play poses many questions and, as Pinter intended, gives no answers, but this was a breath-taking opportunity to see a first-class exposition of the great playwright's work at its best.

Amir Nisi

Richard Beck

A graduate in theology and education, Richard acted and contributed to dance, drama and music productions throughout his teaching career. He joined Broadway Baby in 2014 and is now our Editor-in-Chief. He usually disappears to warmer climes for the winter to pursue his passion for travel.

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The Blurb:

Why stage The Dumb Waiter. Two reasons. First we should all embrace a little absurdism at Christmas and Harold Pinter excels in it. This great English playwright emerged in the 1950s and 60s specialising in the use of small talk. silence and comic menace while offering beautifully flowing dialogue which to work.  The Dumb Waiter written in 1950 9. was 1. of explores many questions punctually and intelligently. 

The other reason is that we have inetwo fine actors to perform it. Connor Lynch-Wyatt is becoming an old pro these days, accomplished not just as a singer/dancer but as an actor of growing confidence Sammy Skeels has already delivered a string of excellent acting performances, not least in his Peter Pan. None Putting them together with such a wonderful short play feels like an early Christmas treat. OK

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